The International Finance Corporation (IFC) may provide Zaporizhia with a $55 million long-term loan to finance a package of initiatives aimed at improving energy efficiency, infrastructure development and transport logistics.
The board of directors plans to consider this project on February 15, 2021, the bank said on its website.
IFC plans to provide Zaporizhia with up to EUR 36.7 million of a loan from its own funds and to organize another EUR 18.3 million through the Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program (MCPP).
It is assumed that the funds will be used for the installation of an intelligent traffic control system, street lighting and modernization of control centers, the purchase of electric buses, trolleybuses and related infrastructure, (reconstruction of traction equipment, substations, the purchase of road construction and cleaning equipment, as well as the reconstruction of roads and the development of public parks.
In addition, IFC will help develop a Smart City 2.0 strategy for Zaporizhia
The State Agency of Ukraine for the Management of the Exclusion Zone and the mobile operator Vodafone Ukraine are working on a pilot project for the construction of a fire safety monitoring system on the territory of the Exclusion Zone in Chornobyl.
According to the message of the Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine posted on its website on Monday, the first step of the project was to expand the coverage of Chornobyl with high-speed mobile Internet 4G in the 900 MHz range and install a base station there.
The next stage will be testing the operation of thermal imagers, which will be installed at a height and cover a significant area. The new system will quickly identify the place of fire using video cameras and thermal imagers.
“Modern technologies open up ample opportunities for instant detection of fires in forest areas. Thanks to cooperation with Vodafone Ukraine, NB-IoT technology will start operating in Chornobyl, which is built on the concept of the ‘Internet of Things’ and allows safe and fast transfer of information between objects. And it, in turn, makes it possible to instantly respond to fire situations and localize them,” Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Roman Abramovsky is quoted as saying.
He also stressed that effective prevention of fires directly depends on technical equipment and the use of smart technologies.
At the same time, Abramovsky noted that the expansion of mobile coverage will contribute to the development of investment and tourist attractiveness of the Chornobyl zone.
“This is the first such solution in Ukraine, which Vodafone Ukraine develops and implements exclusively for the Chornobyl exclusion zone. In the future, it can be scaled to other fire hazardous areas of Ukraine,” said Andriy Bolshakov, deputy director general of Vodafone Ukraine.
According to Vodafone Ukraine, NB-IoT technology provides a high security standard – encryption and authentication based on a SIM card, which are not available in other technologies. In addition, it optimizes power consumption, extending the battery life of the components up to 10 years. Moreover, the capacity of such a network is significantly higher than that of a voice network.
As reported, high-speed mobile Internet from Vodafone Ukraine appeared in the Chornobyl exclusion zone in 2016 after the launch of the base station of the 3G network in Prypyat. The rollout of the operator’s 4G network began in the Chornobyl exclusion zone in November 2018.
The Irish low-cost airline Ryanair (Dublin) opened ticket sales for the Kyiv-Venice route from March 30, 2021.
The airline’s booking system notes that the flights will be operated by a subsidiary of Malta Air to Treviso airport twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
Departure from Venice is scheduled at 7:15 a.m. with arrival in Kyiv at 10:40 a.m. The return flight from Kyiv is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. with an arrival in Venice at 12:40 p.m..
As reported, in July 2020 Ryanair announced 16 new destinations between Ukraine and Italy as part of the schedule for winter 2020 and summer 2021.
To date, Ryanair’s announced route network from Ukraine to Italy includes 19 routes, including six from Kyiv to Bologna, Catania, Bergamo, Naples, Rome and Venice, with these flights delayed until spring 2021.
The first direct flight Kyiv – Skopje departed took off on Sunday, now Ukraine and North Macedonia are connected by regular flights, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
“We are further expanding the freedom of travel for Ukrainians. Ukraine and North Macedonia signed a visa-free regime last year. And today, for the first time in history, a direct flight Kyiv – Skopje has taken off. From now on, our countries are connected by regular flights. This is the development of not only tourism, but also business contacts,” wrote Kuleba on Twitter on Sunday.
PJSC Zaporizhkoks, one of the largest producers of coke-chemical products in Ukraine, which is part of the Metinvest group, in January-November this year increased its production by 3.2% compared to the same period last year – up to 779,400 tonnes.
According to the company, 67,600 tonnes of blast furnace coke were produced in November, 68,300 tonnes in October.
“The decrease in coke production in November 2020 is due to the overhaul of coke oven battery No. 6 with a total budget of UAH 90 million,” the company explained.
As reported, Zaporizhkoks in 2019 increased production by 0.3% compared to the previous year – up to 827,500 tonnes.
Zaporizhkoks produces about 10% of coke produced in Ukraine, owns a full technological cycle of processing coke-chemical products. In addition, it produces coke oven gas and pitch coke.
The pharmaceutical market of Ukraine over 2020 will grow by 4-6%, the chairman of the board of directors of Darnitsa Pharmaceutical Group, Dmytro Shymkiv, predicts.
“According to analysts, over 2020 we will see growth in the range of 4-6%. The market is expected to grow by about 6-11% in 2021,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Shymkiv noted that “the Ukrainian pharmaceutical industry has a great potential inherent in the previous period: over the past five years, the industry has grown, on average, by 12% annually.”
At the same time, he predicts that Darnitsa will end 2020 with the indicators of last year.
“In both Ukrainian and international pharmaceutical sectors, this can be considered a serious result for an unexpectedly turbulent year,” he said.
